1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic fishing lure, and more particularly to an electronic fishing lure that utilizes onboard circuitry to control one or a series of light (multicolor/mono color) sources so as to enhance the fishing lure's color and visibility for all light conditions a user may encounter during fishing.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic fish lures employing a source of illumination to attract fish are known in the prior art as is evidenced by virtue of the teachings and structure contained in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,536,408; 4,437,256; and 4,669,213.
Although these prior art meet their specific needs, in most prior art, there is no effective controllability over turning the illumination source on and off, or changing its the lighting mode. The lighting mode cannot be readily switched; thus, the fish lure appearance cannot be easily changed based on the fly.
Prior art published in recent years provides means to control illumination color and intensity. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,707,764 to Osburn discloses a light emitting fishing lure, where the illumination source is turned on when the fish lure submerges into the water and is turned off when the fish lure is taken out of the water. Similarly, U.S. PreGrant Publication No. 2010/0175304 to Barmore discloses a fish lure including an electrical unit that can control illumination and sound emissions. U.S. PreGrant Publication No. 2009/0007480 (WO2005084431A1, EP1725092A1) to Braun discloses a fishing lure and a system for operating and controlling said fishing lure. The fishing lure contains a microprocessor and is controllable via a switch on the lure or a remote control, which can be used to select various operating modes such that the lure can produce any movement, desired color, or pattern of colors, to emulate the body of a desired bait fish. Braun discloses the use of a remote infrared transmitter to change the operational modes of the fish lure. Likewise, U.S. PreGrant Publication No. 2006/0010763 to Podlewski et al. discloses a programmable fishing lure containing an onboard microcontroller that is controllable via a switch on the lure or a remote control. The lights and sound devices of the Podlewski fish lure can be controlled using control firmware in an on-board microcontroller, with programming signals being input through an inductor USB port. These prior art devices include complex control interfaces for activating or changing the functions of the fishing lure.
Our present invention is distinguished from these prior art in that our present invention has control mechanism, switch mechanism, and charging mechanism all multiplexed into a pair of electrical contact points. The microcontroller controls lighting mode in response to simple signals received at the electrical contact points, either by a user touching the contact points, or by immersing the lure in water. Furthermore, our present invention provides solution to other aforementioned problems, such as recharging the battery.